Grome’s 33 Assists and Dailey’s Seven Kills Overpower LSU Sunday
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Now winners of 20-straight sets and seven-straight matches, the No. 13 Kentucky Volleyball team swept LSU 3-0 (25-22, 25-15, 25-18) on Sunday afternoon inside Historic Memorial Coliseum behind 33 assists from senior setter Emma Grome and a .636 hitting percentage from middle blocker Jordyn Dailey.
The Wildcats hit .297 as a team, just a tick under .300, and held the Tigers to .189 for the match, including .100 in the final two sets. Brooklyn DeLeye ran her team-leading streak of double-digit kills to 19-straight matches as she logged 11 kills on 28 swings with four digs and a pair of blocks in the contest.
Kentucky dominated the service line Sunday afternoon, tallying nine aces to LSU’s four with senior Eleanor Beavin logging three of them to lead the Kentucky charge, one ahead of Eleanor Beavin, who was credited with two.
This upcoming week will serve as Kentucky’s final week of the season without a midweek contest as the Wildcats are now off until next Sunday, November 16 at 1:30 p.m. ET as the Wildcats will play host to Georgia. The match will be shown live on SEC Network+ and the ESPN app with tickets for the match available at UKathletics.com/tickets.
With Sunday’s sweep over the Tigers, Kentucky has now won a season-high 20-straight sets as Kentucky has swept its last seven matches in Southeastern Conference play and ups its lead-leading record to 10-2. Missouri, who plays South Carolina later Sunday evening, is a half match back of Kentucky in the win column, entering Sunday with an 8-2 league record. Kentucky is now 16-7 on the year and 10-2 in the conference. LSU is now 13-9 and 5-7 in the SEC with Sunday’s loss to Kentucky.
Set One
LSU maintained a lead for a majority of the first stages of the set before an Asia Thigpen ace gave the Wildcats their first lead of the match at 9-8. After LSU reinstated its lead to make things 13-11, Kentucky went on a 4-1 run to close into the media timeout and UK led 15-14 with the one-point lead going to the break. An Ava Sarafa ace, the second of the match for Kentucky pushed the match to 17-14 in the opening set and with UK on a 5-0 scoring run, LSU called its first timeout of the set. That would be Kentucky’s largest lead of the set as LSU battled to tie the frame at 18-18 and it wasn’t until a Brooklyn DeLeye kill from the left side to make things 23-20 that Kentucky led by three again and DeLeye’s third termination of the set ended things as the Wildcats took the opening set, 25-22. UK hit .290 in the set and Asia Thigpen led the way with a .571 hitting percentage on four kills and no errors for Kentucky.
Set Two
An early service run by Brooklyn DeLeye that included an ace pushed the Wildcats out to the lead at 9-5, with the four-point margin showing as the largest lead of any set to that point for Kentucky. Megan Wilson’s fourth kill of the match pushed the second set into a media timeout with UK leading the frame 15-11. Out of the timeout, Kentucky won the next two points thanks to an error by the Tigers and an ace by Eleanor Beavin to make things 17-11 and faced into a six-point deficit, LSU called its first timeout. Asia Thigpen ended the set off an extended-rally kill to push Kentucky to a 2-0 lead in the match thanks to a 25-15 second set. UK hit .278 in the set with 14 kills to four errors as the Wildcats held LSU to .138 for the second on only eight kills and four errors.
Set Three
Similar to the first set, LSU maintained a steady ship in the opening stages of the third set and after trailing 7-5, Kentucky ran off three in a row on Molly Tuozzo’s serve to push to the lead and at 11-10, Kennedy Washington and Megan Wilson stuffed a ball on the right side to give Kentucky its first two-point edge since it was 3-1, Wildcats. Kennedy Washington got on the scoresheet again thanks to a thunderous kill from the right side to give Kentucky the 15-13 lead as the third set hit its media timeout. Kentucky ran away and hid to the finish, closing out the match on an LSU error to take the third, 25-18.
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